Shellshocked Rockaway residents fear it’s only a matter of time before another fuel-filled jet crashes into their homes again, unless authorities draw flight paths based on safety instead of convenience.

As residents of the peninsula adjacent to JFK Airport come to grips with last week’s crash of Flight 587, they say their repeated calls for a revision of the flight paths have been drowned out by the low-flying jets that shake their houses hundreds of times a day.

“Why are we bearing the brunt of landings and takeoffs?” asked Bob Holden, president of the Juniper Park Civic Association, who has long campaigned for a rerouting of the increasing traffic through New York’s major international airport.

“It’s gotten worse each year. They come in very low – sometimes you could just throw a rock and hit one of them.”

Five residents of the Rockaways were killed when the American Airlines jet crashed in a deadly fireball last Monday. The 260 passengers and crew on board Flight 587, headed to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, also perished.

By yesterday, shock had turned to anger among locals as investigators continued to search for reasons why the Airbus A300 lost its tail fin and both of its CF6 engines, then spiraled into Beach 131st Street, destroying four houses and seriously damaging four others.

Residents of the area that was showered with crash debris and flaming jet fuel say the tragedy was an accident waiting to happen.

They believe airline demands to ease congestion have resulted in the use of flight paths that put airline schedules and profit above the safety of the neighborhoods below.

The airlines say they adhere to the approved number of arrival and departure “slots” assigned to New York-area airports and operate within all the rules set by the Federal Aviation Administration and the Port Authority.

Some residents, though, say many planes out of JFK appear to drift wide of designated flight paths in a bid to clear airspace quicker.

In addition, computer-generated tracking logs show more flights are put on direct paths directly over homes than those that take the longer route over water beyond Breezy Point, at the tip of the peninsula.

FAA eastern region spokeswoman Arlene Salac confirmed that current flight paths around JFK date from the 1960s and ’70s, when airports were far less congested.

She said the FAA has held more than 60 public hearings on a redesign of the system, with a draft report likely to be released for public review in 2003.

Although the location of flight paths is a complicated process that factors in runway orientation and wind direction, advocacy groups say powerful airlines and cashed-up communities with political clout have their way when new paths are mapped.

They say it’s no coincidence that some of the better houses on the Rockaway Peninsula are in those areas only flanked by flight paths rather than directly below them.

“There is considerable evidence to show that most flights go over minority and low-income areas of the Rockaways,” said Frans Verhagen, president of Sane Aviation For Everyone (SAFE), which has about 2,000 members locally.

“It’s kind of ironic that the flight came down in Belle Harbor, which is one of the more prosperous parts of the Rockaways.”

SAFE vice president William Mulcahy said maps of JFK flight paths show the majority of traffic around the airport avoids “wealthy areas” such as Breezy Point and Lawrence, L.I.

“The poor, black communities in Far Rockaway, where planes make a right turn away from Lawrence, don’t have any lobby,” said Mulcahy, 56, a retired city firefighter. “It’s very unfair, very political.”

The FAA rejects those suggestions and says communities of all levels around JFK, and nearby La Guardia Airport, share the effects of New York’s air traffic, the most congested in the country.

While many residents of the Rockaways say they knew what was in store when they bought or rented close to the airport, they believe last Monday’s tragedy could happen again unless more flights are directed along a path called the “Breezy Track” around the southwestern tip of the peninsula.

Lobby groups say the extra distance would add about $150 in fuel costs per flight, with planes traveling above Jamaica Bay and following the inlet off Breezy Point to access north, south and east flight paths over the Atlantic Ocean.

“I don’t think the FAA has given much thought to that,” said Belle Harbor resident Jennifer Parisi. “But I think it would cost a lot less than the cleanup and lawsuits will.”

“It’s scary to have these flights over us,” said Lisa Renee, 22, of Beach 86th Street. “It would be worth it to have them rerouted.”

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Queens) is pushing a bill that would force the FAA to route certain JFK flights over water and impose hefty fines for airlines found cutting corners on designated flight paths.

“We’re trying to do with legislation what cajoling and negotiation hasn’t accomplished,” Weiner said.

The FAA’s Salac said some flights already do exit the area over the inlet, but she said it was unrealistic to expect all the 1,000-plus flights into and out of JFK to pass over the mile-wide channel.

“You would be tunneling all that traffic through one little area,” Salac said. “For some runways it would require very sharp turns. There’s just no way not to go over some land out of JFK.”